MARKED FOR PRETEND - Chapter 67: Chapter 67
You are reading MARKED FOR PRETEND, Chapter 67: Chapter 67. Read more chapters of MARKED FOR PRETEND.
The Keep was quiet.
Not the haunted kind of quiet.The healing kind.
No more smoke in the sky, no more whispers in the halls.
Only the sound of rebuilding hammers, laughter, the soft hum of a future that no longer felt cursed.
Chelsea walked through the garden barefoot, toes brushing new grass that hadn’t grown here in years.
Behind her, the Keep stood tall.
Ahead of her… the unknown.
But for the first time, she wasn’t afraid of it.
⸻
“They asked me if I’m still marked,” she told Bevy.
“What did you say?”
Chelsea smiled, twisting her fingers through the breeze.
“I said the mark wasn’t for them. It never was.”
⸻
The Keep no longer feared her.
The wolves no longer whispered when she walked past.
Some bowed. Some didn’t.
She didn’t care.
“The bridge doesn’t ask for approval,” her mother once said in a dream.
“It just holds the weight, even when no one notices.”
⸻
Later that night, she stood by the ridge with Kaden.
The moon was bright. The same way it had been the night she was first “chosen.”
Now?
She stood at his side, not because of fate, not because of a scroll or a mark, but because they chose each other despite everything.
“You’re quiet,” Kaden murmured.
“I’ve said enough,” she whispered back.
“You scared the hell out of me.”
“You needed a little humbling.”
“You nearly died.”
“I didn’t.”
He turned to her, brushing hair from her face.
“You came back to me.”
“I always will.” They kissed not with fire or desperation this time, but with peace.
The war was over.The girl they had called a witch, a curse, a threat……was now the bridge between worlds. And she would never be hidden again.
⸻
The mark had never meant weakness.
It meant she was never meant to walk just one path.
And now, she didn’t have to.
Not alone.
Not the haunted kind of quiet.The healing kind.
No more smoke in the sky, no more whispers in the halls.
Only the sound of rebuilding hammers, laughter, the soft hum of a future that no longer felt cursed.
Chelsea walked through the garden barefoot, toes brushing new grass that hadn’t grown here in years.
Behind her, the Keep stood tall.
Ahead of her… the unknown.
But for the first time, she wasn’t afraid of it.
⸻
“They asked me if I’m still marked,” she told Bevy.
“What did you say?”
Chelsea smiled, twisting her fingers through the breeze.
“I said the mark wasn’t for them. It never was.”
⸻
The Keep no longer feared her.
The wolves no longer whispered when she walked past.
Some bowed. Some didn’t.
She didn’t care.
“The bridge doesn’t ask for approval,” her mother once said in a dream.
“It just holds the weight, even when no one notices.”
⸻
Later that night, she stood by the ridge with Kaden.
The moon was bright. The same way it had been the night she was first “chosen.”
Now?
She stood at his side, not because of fate, not because of a scroll or a mark, but because they chose each other despite everything.
“You’re quiet,” Kaden murmured.
“I’ve said enough,” she whispered back.
“You scared the hell out of me.”
“You needed a little humbling.”
“You nearly died.”
“I didn’t.”
He turned to her, brushing hair from her face.
“You came back to me.”
“I always will.” They kissed not with fire or desperation this time, but with peace.
The war was over.The girl they had called a witch, a curse, a threat……was now the bridge between worlds. And she would never be hidden again.
⸻
The mark had never meant weakness.
It meant she was never meant to walk just one path.
And now, she didn’t have to.
Not alone.
End of MARKED FOR PRETEND Chapter 67. View all chapters or return to MARKED FOR PRETEND book page.